


Everything Together

by orphan_account



Series: Everything Together [1]
Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-01-20
Packaged: 2017-11-26 05:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/647059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone’s favorite Dwarf brothers being sweet and brothery in even the hardest of circumstances. Set in Mirkwood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything Together

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at http://thorinsmut.tumblr.com/post/39395215710/kilis-beard-or-everything-together
> 
> Literary criticisms are appreciated.

_“…he was feeling very sick and ill from spider-poison, and from hanging most of the night and the next day wound round and round with only his nose to breathe through. It took him ages to get the beastly stuff out of his eyes and eyebrows, and as for his beard, he had to cut most of it off.”  
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Chapter VIII - Flies and Spiders_

“It’s going to have to be shaved.” Fili kept his voice quiet, gentle, but Kili flinched from it as if from a blow, turning away from the scrutiny of his older brother’s gray-blue eyes, pushing him away. The blond dwarf patted at his clothes, hoping he still had his sharpening stone.  
The Hobbit was pacing at the edge of the elf ring they’d found, where the light was greener and the horrible spiders did not seem to dare approach. Bilbo, small though he was, looked ferocious - tattered and exhausted, but ferocious none the less - all spattered with spider gore and his little elven dagger never leaving his hand as he paced back and forth, his sharp eyes searching the trees for whatever the next danger would be.  
The Dwarves of the company had already known how brave their Burglar was, after he faced down Azog alone, but they were all more than a little surprised at how ruthlessly he’d slaughtered the spiders while they could barely shuffle along for the spider-poison. There were untold depths to him yet.  
Fili set about resharpening his knife, the only one he still had left, Kili hunkering down miserably at the sound. Balin, who had more of his whits still about him than some, managed to convince Bilbo to sit down and explain his disappearing act before the Hobbit burnt himself out with nerves.  
The Dwarves lay sprawled about the elf ring, exhausted and still so sick from the spider poison, despondently picking spider string out of their hair and off of their clothes as Bilbo explained. It was horrible, sticky stuff, the spider string, but they found that if they rubbed it between their fingers it rolled into little balls that could be flicked away… all but poor Kili. Perhaps the spider who wrapped him had been particularly sticky, or perhaps it was some combination of his stubble and his skin, but the spider string would not come off of his face, no matter how he rubbed at it.  
Fili’s knife was now as sharp as he could get it… which was to say extremely sharp. He repocketed his sharpening stone and tested the angular blade against the back of his arm, easily removing the hairs there. He lay the knife across his lap and reached over to his sulking brother, picking spider strings out of the back of the younger Dwarf’s dark hair. Kili sniffled quietly into his knees.  
“It’ll grow back…” Fili tried to comfort. “I’m sorry there’s nothing else we can try, we don’t have any water…”  
“It took so long to grow in…” Kili sighed, turning toward his brother, defeat in every line of his body. Fili nodded sympathetically, he knew how hard it was for his younger brother to be so clean-faced for his age, to be constantly mistaken for younger. Even Ori had more beard than him, though he was a few years younger… and now Kili would have to be as beardless and baby-faced as a Hobbit or an Elf for months until his stubble grew back in.  
Fili gently picked the spider strings out of his brother’s eyebrows, then rested his off-hand on the younger’s cheek, bringing the sharp knife up to the other, delicately running the blade along it, sheering off the stubble and the spider string with it. The other Dwarves were looking politely away, speaking with Bilbo or just quietly letting the sickening spider poison wear off with rest… so it was only Fili who saw his brother’s bottom lip tremble as the knife ran over his face. Only Fili saw the tear run down his brother’s cheek. He wiped it away wordlessly with his thumb as he switched to the opposite cheek, cleaning away the spider string, leaving his brother looking horribly young and vulnerable.  
Kili drew his knees up, hiding his chin behind them when Fili was done, picking spider strings off of his boots.  
Fili cleaned the blade of his knife of the sticky strings and his brother’s hair, then flipped the knife, offered it to the dark haired dwarf handle-first.  
“Cut mine.” he said. Kili looked up at him, sad dark eyes not understanding.  
Fili thrust his blond chin forward, offering the knife to his brother. “Everything together, like we promised.” he reminded, gently, “you can cut mine.”  
Kili shook his head, pushing the knife away. “Not his.” he said, “It’s enough that we’ll be dying together out here… lost in this awful forest… dying of thirst and hunger… or poisoned and eaten by spiders…” Kili was rubbing at his leg where a gash in his clothing marked a place the spiders had bitten him. Fili’s own bites hurt enough to know how badly it ached. He put his knife back in it’s arm sheath.  
“and…” Kili sniffled quietly, “has anyone else noticed that Thorin’s gone?” he closed his eyes, hugging his knees, but two tears still managed to squeeze out of his closed lids, running down his bare cheeks.  
Fili reached out and roughly pulled his younger brother to him, cradling him against his chest. It wasn’t _like_ Kili to loose hope, but with their food and water long gone, the path and Thorin both lost, and the nauseating sickness of the spider bites weakening them all so they could barely stand to defend themselves Fili didn’t have any hope of his own to share.  
Kili shook in silent tears as his blond elder brother stroked his back.  
“Everything together.” he promised, “There is no one I would rather die beside.”

“We have to keep moving.” Bilbo was done explaining his story and had taken to pacing again, “Our only hope, slim as it is, is to find the path again.”  
With groans the Dwarves rolled themselves to their feet, brothers and cousins steadying one another – so it was not strange at all that Fili kept his arm tight around Kili’s shoulders as they set off in the direction that most of them thought was most likely to be the path.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: the sharp-eyed Tolkienites among you may have noticed that I switched which brother’s beard had to be cut. I did it this way because it’s cuter… also, I just couldn’t bear to cut Fili’s majestic mustache.  
> For any interested, this is what Fili’s knife looks like. http://www.wetanz.com/knife-of-fili-the-dwarf/


End file.
